


Us or the People?

by bendthekneejon



Series: Moments: Spring and Bliss [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: A simple fic about their true motivations, A simple fic to show that both are good people, Dany is a good fucking person, Dany isn't a villain, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 17:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19773121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bendthekneejon/pseuds/bendthekneejon
Summary: Set after 8x03.After the defeat of the White Walkers, Jon and Dany contemplate the possibility of running away together.





	Us or the People?

**Author's Note:**

> Dany and Jon have gone through thick and thin to protect others. They are the heroes of ASOIAF. No one can change my mind about this, not even the writers. This is an attempt to demonstrate that Dany’s main purpose is saving and protecting others, instead of power. So, this fic is about Jon and Dany's true motivations, wishes, and inner conflict—the conflict that actually matters (love vs. duty) not the incest thing which makes no sense in two families where endogamy is normal af.  
> Dany and Jon, this is for you two. Thank you for everything.
> 
> * * *
> 
> This is sort of a short fic. I just want to let you guys know that I'm still alive and writing (and another fic that I'm putting muuuch more effort into is coming soon).
> 
> Special thanks to my dear @theendlessrivers for the beta work <3

After the battle, Dany and Jon ran to each other locked their arms in the strongest embrace they had ever had. They had never felt so alive as their love bound them together as they stood among corpses, fire, arrows, and ruins…surrounded by death. That night, Dany had lost Ser Jorah, her bear, and her grip around Jon was as tight as if letting him go meant that she would lose him as well. Her life story seemed like a never-ending sequence of losses. How long would this go on? Was she doomed? Was the price to pay for peace the loss of all her loved ones? As she held Jon tightly, she hoped it wasn’t.

“I’ve lost everyone I loved. Everyone! I can’t lose you too, Jon,” she had wept. She had never loved anyone as she loved him. “Don’t ever leave me.”

He shook his head. “I won’t. I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

* * *

Later, in his bed, they were still clinging to each other, unable to let go. They had not even changed their clothes, they had arrived at his chambers so tired they didn’t even have the strength to take them off. The battle had left every inch of their limbs in pain.

“Jon…” she said quietly. She didn’t want to murder the silence and stillness when they were this tired, but she couldn’t bear another second to pass by without answers. “I know you don’t want to be king…”

He sighed. “I don’t. I won’t be an impediment for you to get the Throne.”

“That’s not what I meant. That’s not what I fear. You said you…will follow me wherever I go—”

“I will,” he said firmly.

She turned her body to face him. “But if _I_ get the Throne, and we _want_ to be together, and you don’t _want_ to be king…” she trailed off.

He grabbed her face from both sides. “Then I’ll take it.”

She sighed. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he assured her. “It’s our duty, isn’t it? Mine and yours.”

She exhaled. It was a partial relief, as another question was stinging in the back of her head. “You don’t mind that we’re family?” She looked down at his chest, avoiding his gaze, trying to ignore the fear that he would reject her for this reason.

“No,” he replied. “And others won’t mind, either. My grandparents were cousins. It won’t be a problem.”

She hugged him right away, pressing a kiss to his head. Many other families, besides the Targaryens, married their kin. The truth was that Targaryens were the only ones who carried out brother-sister marriages, Jon told her.

With the little strength she had left, she pressed a kiss to his lips before giving in to sleep. She loved him. She wanted to be with him always. Could it really be possible?

* * *

They woke up after a long rest. Her soul was still shaking in fear inside her, fighting the dead face to face had haunted her dreams. The battle against Cersei was still pending, but the rays of sunlight that leaked into the room signaled not only the start of spring, but of a new era in the kingdoms. _Peace_. Was that what was in store for her and Jon as well?

She had never known peace—only exile, hunger, war, rape, being sold, crossing wastelands…And for Jon, it wasn’t any better: being a bastard, a member of the Night’s Watch, losing a lover, _being murdered_ …Was there ever an end to this suffering? Once she sat on the Throne—what she had been chasing for years—would she _truly_ be happy?

 _If I look back I am lost,_ she thought. But she had to look back. She had to look back at the times when she ran from door to door, holding her brother’s hand, asking for a roof to sleep under, selling their mother’s crown to buy some food. She had to look back to the house with the red door in Braavos, to her wish for a childhood and a family she never had. Wasn’t this what she had always wanted? Westeros had always been her home in her dreams. She wanted to cross the Narrow Sea all these years to get home. And she did find it. She found Jon.

She looked out the window as she sat up in bed. The clouds were diving away, clearing the skies. She hoped this could be an omen for the life she had always wanted.

Jon sat up, groaning. “This is uncomfortable,” he said in a husky, sleepy voice as he untied the laces of his doublet. She replaced his hands with hers and helped him untie them faster. “Thank you,” he said, and pulled his doublet and shirt over his head, exposing his naked chest. The sight of his scars made her sigh. She turned around, trying to hide a tear that was about to fall, but he still asked, “Are you alright?”

The hem of her dress was rolled up, exposing her knee. He held it and stroked it with his thumb.

She blinked quickly, looking out the window. “I’m so close to getting the Throne…but I’m not sure this is the life I want.”

“And what is the life you want?”

She turned to him. “Oh, Jon.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I just want peace. For the kingdoms, yes, but also for me and for you. It sounds like a nice dream, doesn’t it? Unreachable, perhaps. Rulers like you and I…can they ever know peace?” He dropped his gaze, thoughtful. “I always dreamed of…” she smiled softly, “of living in the countryside, quietly, in a stone house…with a husband and children and lemon trees,” she chuckled, feeling silly. He gave her a warm smile. “But I’ve always pushed these dreams away because…I never belonged to myself, only to my people. They are first. Because I am a queen. And this is my duty. And your duty.”

“Aye, it is,” he agreed sadly. “But I’ve always wanted a family as well. Never thought I could have one. I didn’t want to father any bastards.” She took his hand again in comfort. “And I’d take a life in the countryside before one in power without hesitation.”

They had lived such similar lives. In turn, they had such similar wishes. How badly she wished they could just jump on the dragons’ backs and fly away and be a common husband and wife till the end of their days! But duty was on the way, and she was so close to the Throne…Was it cowardice to run away from it and choose quietness and a family? Was she a coward for not wanting to face being the Queen? Was she selfish? She was caring for herself. For the first time in her life.

“For so long I’ve given,” she held his hand tightly between both her hands. “Given and given and given. Others have always been first. I’ve ignored everything I wanted: from friends to a place to call home. _We_ have done so much for others, and what have we gotten back?” She touched his scars with a sad gaze. He held her hand and pressed it. She didn’t regret for a second everything she had done for others—from freeing slaves to crossing wastelands—she wished a ruler could have done justice for her when she was defenseless, when she was sold. But power…power wasn’t rewarding. A throne was a lonely place, she realized when she sat on her ebony bench in Meereen. She didn’t have friends. She couldn’t tell who truly cared about her from who only wanted to be close to power. Jon was the exception. They were both lonely people. When she slept beside her previous lovers, she felt alone. With him, she never did. He had walked through the same path as her, he understood how she felt.

“But,” he said softly, “I do think there’s something we’ve gained from this painful journey, from all these hardships.”

“What is it?” she asked with a curious gaze.

“We found each other,” he said. A tear left her eye, so quickly it would have been a vain attempt to try to hide it. She pressed her lips against his. “And we’ve helped many people along the way. But we won’t be happy on the Throne, would we? At least not happier than we could be as common people, apart from all this.” He stroked her hands with his. “When I lived with the wildlings and wasn’t in power…for a few moments, I was happier than when I was King or Lord Commander.”

“The price of power is too high,” she nodded with a frown.

“If we could just run away…” he trailed off as his eyelids fell. She gave him a sad smile. If it only were that simple. “We could be happier, the two of us on our own.”

“But we must fulfill our duty, musn’t we?”

 _“Love is the death of duty,”_ he said quietly. “I’ve chosen duty over love before. I don’t want to make the same mistake again. There is nothing…” he paused, “ _nothing_ more important than love. I learned it the hard way.”

“I agree.” She feared a loveless life more than anything. No wonder why prisoners were locked in cells on their own for torture. There was nothing worse than loneliness, nothing better than love. Her people’s love for her wasn’t the same, though. They loved Queen Daenerys. Jon, though, loved her as she was. He knew her so well. There was nothing more rewarding than being loved for who one is. He had seen past her flaws and loved her anyway. And she loved him back with the same intensity. She wanted nothing but to end his suffering.

“I can’t put into words how weary I am of power,” he went on. “Of all this weight on our shoulders. I never _asked_ for this claim. I never asked to be Lord Commander nor King in the North. And you’ve seen the way the northerners treat me whenever they disagree with me. My brothers of the Night’s Watch _murdered_ me—” his voice broke, she stroked his hand with her thumb. “And now… _the Seven Kingdoms_.” He let out a sad chuckle. “I want to know what peace is like, just like you do. But I know I _must_ choose duty.” And by fulfilling their duty, in power, they wouldn’t be happy, she guessed. “Why couldn’t we be common people?” he grumbled. “Why couldn’t we just have been low-born, without this weight on our shoulders? Why do we have to choose between us or others? Why us?”

She hung her head down, and a tear fell on their intertwined hands.

“I don’t know why. It feels so unfair, doesn’t it? Working so hard for others’ happiness but being unable to chase our own.” Jon’s eyes teared up. She frowned and shut her eyes. “How much _more_ do we have to give to the world in order for us to deserve the life we want? Some peace and quiet, is that too much to ask? _What else do we need to do?!_ ” She let her head fall to her hands.

He carded his fingers through her hair, down her back, and kissed the side of her head.

“What should we do? What can I do to make you happy?” he asked her. “Should we lock the door and never get out of here?” he pointed at the door and she chuckled. “Or…we could dye our hair and fly away to a city far away, and Sam could train me to be a maester and you could work as a…”

“Healer,” she said, remembering how she had healed the sick Astapori at the gates of Meereen. She wanted to make up for all the other people she had wanted to heal back then but couldn’t.

“Well, we’ll be helping people anyway.”

“We can go back to the waterfalls and…and the dragons can hunt our food and even roast it,” she laughed softly, remembering how she had eaten lambs with Drogon when they had been lost in the Dothraki sea.

“And we’ll eat it with lemon juice from your trees.”

She chuckled and pressed two tiny kisses to his lips. She didn’t know how much of it was serious or just jest. She guessed there was a bit of truth behind every proposal, the motivations were sincere. Perhaps they couldn’t run away, but they were allowed to dream.

He placed an arm around her shoulders. “After we defeat Cersei, perhaps then there will be peace. Someone else could rule. The White Walkers are gone. The Long Night is over. The hard task has been done.”

“The hard task is ruling the Seven Kingdoms!” she cried. Ruling Slaver’s Bay had not been easy, she could not fathom the difficulty of ruling Seven Kingdoms. “And would anyone else on the Throne care as much as us to maintain peace in the kingdoms? If we choose to run away together, would that doom the population of the Westeros all over again? Will our peace cost the peace of millions? Will we do more harm than good? Who else is out there? Sansa, Tyrion, Varys, Davos…are they as committed as we are for the people?”

“Perhaps—”

“Would they take a knife in the heart for the people?!” she cried. “We can’t leave the people behind. We’ve fought for them for _years_.”

He sighed, and in a low voice said, “It’s true.”

“Unless we find a way to ensure there will be peace in the Kingdoms, we’ll have to stay. But you would be unhappy on the Throne.” She would be, as well, wouldn’t she? “And I love you. I want you to be happy...”

He shook his head. “It’s without you the way I’d be unhappy,” he interrupted her. “I want you. I love you. If being King of the Seven Kingdoms is the way to be with you, I’ll take it,” he reminded her.

She nodded with a trembling smile, letting her tears fall freely. Who else had ever loved her this much? Who else had she loved this much?

He looked at her straight in the eyes. “Marry me,” he told her. “ _Marry me_. Whatever happens, whatever choice we make, we’ll make it together.”

She nodded right away. “Yes. _Yes!_ ” Her smiled prolonged in his and her arms flung quickly around his neck—forgetting about the pain in her limbs—to press a kiss to his lips.

The Throne wouldn’t make them less lonely, being together would. They had found in each other a family, a place where they belonged. Jon and Daenerys. Molded perfectly for one another. Bound together by fate to the last of their days. On the Throne or in the countryside, as long as they were together, they would be happy, they would be loved. And that’s what mattered. They had both received such little love in their lives…and what a pure love they had now! Love had given sense to Dany’s journey, had guided every step of hers: the love she had for Drogo, Rhaego, Jorah, Missandei, the love she had for her people and that they had for her, the love for her dragons. She would have ended her life when she was thirteen if her love for her son hadn’t saved her. She didn’t want to choose to have love or not in her life. Nothing was that powerful, not even a throne. Love was bounding, it was healing—even the evilest person in the world can be healed with love instead of more hate.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“Whatever we do, we’ll do it together.”

Their kiss, wide yet slow, continued as they both lay down on their sides. They were still exhausted and in pain to make love, but they had the rest of their lives for that. She enjoyed every movement of their lips, every caress of his fingers as they slid from her jaw to the back of her head. How she wished this could go on forever!

“So,” he smiled, holding the sides of her face and wiping her tears with his thumb. “We’ll fulfill our duty?”

She gave him a sad smile and nodded. Love and duty. In the new world they would build, it wouldn’t be a dichotomy. Yet she was still frightened about such responsibility.

“What if I’m not good enough? What if I can’t endure being Queen of the Seven Kingdoms?”

“You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. Look at everything you’ve gone through and where you are now.” He ran the back of his fingers down her arm.

If fate existed, then why was Jon the rightful heir, when she had thought it was her for so long? Could it be that they had to share this duty because they were both equally destined to rule? They were both the justest rulers, the ones who cared the most about the people, so fate had united them in several ways with a higher purpose.

She and Jon had suffered so much in their lives. No one understood them like they understood each other. A same path on different sides of the world had led them to one another, they had known similar hardships, they cared for the people…wasn’t that why they fell in love? Dany hadn’t met any other leader who put his people first as Jon did, the scars on his chest were the utmost proof. She felt understood, less alone. They knew the hardships of the common people firsthand in a way that other lords and ladies didn’t, the ones who didn’t care about the people but instead fought wars about birthrights. She and Jon fought for freedom, to change the world and defend those who couldn’t be defended. Being King and Queen, it was the most difficult job in the world, but it gave them purpose. And in the midst of harsh days, they could have moments like this one, lost in the warmth of a bed and each other’s arms—little oases that kept them going.

Perhaps after all this darkness, there could be some light. It was time for light. For spring. For blossoming. For life. When war was over, it was time for love. On the Throne or not, if she had love, she could endure anything. Love should thrive. Without it, life made no sense. There was no reason to live. Life could never be perfect, but with love, it was worth it.

** The End. **

* * *

_Sharing here, as a tribute, a bunch of quotes from ASOIAF that prove how selfless and NOT power hungry Dany is. Yes, Jon is also selfless, but there’s a stronger need to prove this point about Dany._

“In her dream they had been man and wife, simple folk who lived a simple life in a tall stone house with a red door.” -Dany, ADWD

"She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself." - Dany, ADWD

"'The jewels and the silks, Dragonstone and King’s Landing, the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms, all they have taken from us, we will have it back.' Viserys lived for that day. All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.“ -Dany, AGOT

“Home? The word made her feel sad. Ser Jorah had his Bear Island, but what was home to her? A few tales, names recited as solemnly as the words of a prayer, the fading memory of a red door.” -Dany, AGOT

"I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.” -Dany, ADWD

“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?” -Dany, ASOS

Dany: “Say the word, my sweet, and I will send you from this awful place. I will find a ship somehow and send you home. To Naath”

Missandei: “I would sooner stay with you. On Naath I’d be afraid. What if the slavers came again? I feel safe when I’m with you”

Dany: “I want to keep you safe. I want to protect you but … it is so hard. To be strong. I don’t always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen… the.. the… ”

Missaendei: “… mother. Mother to us all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dany and Jon have put the world first for too long. They deserve peace, nothing less. They’ve strived to build a better world and improve the lives of millions. Their ending in GOT, I think, sends the message that no matter how much good you want to do (or have done), it’s meaningless because ‘absolutism is bad’ (which is sort of repetitive, they made it clear these past 8 seasons). Power corrupts, yes. But neither Jon nor Dany wanted it. They were fulfilling a duty and saving others.  
> My message in all my fics will always be that love is the most powerful force in the world. It gives us a reason to live. Love shouldn’t be viewed as “blindness” (as D&D said in their fucking playlist) but as a compass that guides us along the way. Love saves us over and over and over again. It gives us strength. Love is a stronger force than power and its corruption. But don’t buy my words so quickly, [read what Albert Einstein had to say about this](https://monoset.com/blogs/journal/a-letter-from-albert-einstein-to-his-daughter-on-the-universal-force-of-love).  
> I’ve always thought that if we do good, good will come back to us. Dany has given too much and gotten nothing back. So, as these are my own headcanons, I’ll write them with my own values and messages.  
> Also, I couldn’t get myself to write this past month because it hurt so bad to just think about J/D. I’ve cried too much for them. Despite the little information I have about the ending, I’m torn. You guys know how much I love these two. I’m getting better, but it’s been such a hard month for me. I’ve been depressed and the people around me didn’t understand this grief over a fictional character.  
> And I don’t know if this fandom has fallen apart, I haven’t been active on social media either (not even on AO3). I don’t know if people are still here, reading Jonerys fics. But I do want to send a hug to all of you. I hope you are doing alright. In real life I felt like a weirdo for loving fictional characters this much, in here I felt like I belonged. So I’m sending the best vibes to everyone in the community. I’m still checking my tumblr messages from time to time, if you wanna chat. But I’m not in my dash anymore to avoid the spoilers.  
> We can consider fanfic as canon. I know I will. My own headcanons are my true story. Not whatever was aired on TV. And for that reason, I won’t ever watch it.  
> Thank you for all the valuable lessons, Dany and Jon. I will always love you both. Thank you Kit and Emilia for your amazing performance. It was a fun ride, even though it didn’t end the way we wanted it to. But here we are, fanfic writers. Our imagination will save us.  
> —  
> PS: Donating to Emilia Clarke’s charity [SameYou ](https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/justicefordaenerys)is the best way to let her know that we stand by Daenerys and love her no matter what (and to help people recover from brain injuries ofc!). Dany’s cast a huge amount of strength to so many women around the world. I believe in her genuine goodness and I praise Emilia for following her steps in real life.


End file.
